Hank McHenry and Johnny Marshall work on a road crew for the power company. In a freak accident Hank is injured and is promoted to foreman of the gang. One night Hank and Johnny meet Fay ... See full summary »
Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
If your account is linked with Facebook and you have turned on sharing, this will show up in your activity feed. If not, you can turn on sharing
here
.
Hank McHenry and Johnny Marshall work on a road crew for the power company. In a freak accident Hank is injured and is promoted to foreman of the gang. One night Hank and Johnny meet Fay Duval in a clip joint, but tensions start to show in the road crew as rivally between Hank and Johnny increases. Written by
Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
After Johnny bails Fay out of jail, they are seen walking together down a stairway at the police station. When they arrive at the first landing, as they turn and continue to descend the stairs, the shadow of the microphone boom can be seen on the wall behind them. See more »
Power company workers Hank (Edward G. Robinson) and Johnny (George Raft) end up falling in love with the same woman (Marlene Dietrich) who not only tears their friendship apart but also threatens a lot more. This Warner B-picture shares a lot in common with TIGER SHARK as well as its remake SLIM so those familiar with either of those films won't find anything too original here but to be honest even if you're not familiar with either of them, you'll probably still find this not too original. With that said, the cast is so good that you really can't blame the film for its short comings and instead you will get caught up in the drama and find yourself having a pretty good time. As with many Walsh pictures, this one here takes the simple story and the director pumps it up with all sorts of loud action including various storms with the men trying to work on power lines and of course one thing after another goes wrong. We also get countless scenes with Robinson and Raft in bars, drinking, smoking and just acting tough like not too many can. Fans of the two stars will certainly want to check this film out even though neither men give one of their greatest performances. Robinson manages to come off very tough but also can handle the softer moments with Dietrich as she begins to rip his heart up. Raft has always been fun even when playing the sidekick and that's true here. Apparently he and Robinson had a few angry moments with each other while filming this and you can tell in a few scenes. Dietrich is pretty good but the screenplay really doesn't do her any favors. Both Robinson and Raft at least had well written characters but the same can't be said for Dietrich. Alan Hale and Frank McHugh add nice support. The screenplay follows all the clichés you'd expect it to and this of course leads up to a very silly ending that really doesn't work too well. With that said, as silly as the film is it's still fun for the cast.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
Manpower (1941)
*** (out of 4)
Power company workers Hank (Edward G. Robinson) and Johnny (George Raft) end up falling in love with the same woman (Marlene Dietrich) who not only tears their friendship apart but also threatens a lot more. This Warner B-picture shares a lot in common with TIGER SHARK as well as its remake SLIM so those familiar with either of those films won't find anything too original here but to be honest even if you're not familiar with either of them, you'll probably still find this not too original. With that said, the cast is so good that you really can't blame the film for its short comings and instead you will get caught up in the drama and find yourself having a pretty good time. As with many Walsh pictures, this one here takes the simple story and the director pumps it up with all sorts of loud action including various storms with the men trying to work on power lines and of course one thing after another goes wrong. We also get countless scenes with Robinson and Raft in bars, drinking, smoking and just acting tough like not too many can. Fans of the two stars will certainly want to check this film out even though neither men give one of their greatest performances. Robinson manages to come off very tough but also can handle the softer moments with Dietrich as she begins to rip his heart up. Raft has always been fun even when playing the sidekick and that's true here. Apparently he and Robinson had a few angry moments with each other while filming this and you can tell in a few scenes. Dietrich is pretty good but the screenplay really doesn't do her any favors. Both Robinson and Raft at least had well written characters but the same can't be said for Dietrich. Alan Hale and Frank McHugh add nice support. The screenplay follows all the clichés you'd expect it to and this of course leads up to a very silly ending that really doesn't work too well. With that said, as silly as the film is it's still fun for the cast.